


Coming Home

by Kiiyarayne



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Alternate Canon, I just needed to get this idea started and out of my freaking head, I literally have no idea where I'm going with this right now I'm so sorry, I'll update tags as necessary, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-31
Updated: 2018-05-31
Packaged: 2019-05-16 15:45:45
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14814257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiiyarayne/pseuds/Kiiyarayne
Summary: The year is 1698 and Ling Yao, a young prince from Xing, travels to Amestris alone. After becoming the vessel for the homunculus, Greed, he wakes up to find himself in a very different time period, his body having been alive for over a hundred years now while a monster was controlling it. Now, he must learn to face the fact that it's far too late to return to the land he once called home, and come to some kind of agreement with the homunculus who shares his body.





	Coming Home

**Author's Note:**

> Uhhhh I know I should be working on Phantom Injuries and Choice vs Fate, but this idea wouldn't leave me alone. I also have another wip that's actually being plotted out properly from beginning to end before I ever start writing it, but I may actually be able to put that on an update schedule if I have the patience for it.
> 
> Anyway, the idea for the background for this fic was stronger than the plot coming out of the gate, but I had an idea of where I wanted to start, so here it is.

**Amestris, 1698**

 

 

Prince Ling of the Yao clan had been tasked with finding the secrets of the Philosopher from the West, along with many of his other siblings. While they focused their research in Xing, he traveled west… across the desert. He knew there was no use in searching through dusty tomes that contained only legend, the only way to find the truth of the matter was to travel to the direction the Philosopher had come from. He didn't understand why none of his siblings understood that, but at the same time, he was grateful. It meant less competition for the throne.

To his surprise, he'd found out that there were rumors of a Philosopher from the East that had taught the younger nation of Amestris the art they called alchemy. It was strange, and the whole land _felt_ strange. Ling was never quite able to fall asleep for the inherent sense of wrongness that pervaded the entire country. More, it was a further war-torn country than Xing, although at least in Xing it was mostly warfare between individual clans than blatant attacks by the government itself on its own people.

It was disgusting. A government should never kill its own people.

Still, as he traveled further inland to the nation's capital, a city called Central, Ling felt that growing unease worsen. The capital itself had some kind of awful, evil energy to it. His suspicions were confirmed when he was caught snooping in shadows that seemed much too dark for the daytime, and an oppressive chi seemed to slam into him seemingly from nowhere and everywhere at once.

"Well well. You don't look like you're from around here." A young child's voice caught his attention, although Ling knew without any doubt that the boy he saw when he turned around to face the voice was inhuman. No human could feel like that…

"… What are you…" Ling asked, deathly serious as he pulled out his dao to defend himself.

The shadow of the young boy stretched out with a mind of its own—no, the shadow _was_ the presence he was feeling, the boy was just a puppet! Ling leapt back, trying to get into the safety of the light and not realizing that would only make things worse.

"You're too perceptive for your own good. Maybe Father will know what to do with you…" The boy smiled, a little too beatifically to suit his attitude as the shadows reached out to grab Ling, paradoxically made _stronger_ as the puppet-body followed him into the light. It hit Ling too late, that he had done just what this thing wanted. Shadows were stronger in bright sunlight than in total darkness. Next time—if there _was_ a next time—he wouldn't be so reckless.

Right now, though, he had to concentrate on finding a way to get free of the stranglehold those shadows had on his body. Shadows… with teeth and eyes.

_'What kind of monster is this kid?'_ Ling thought to himself as he was swallowed by the darkness.

He didn't know how long he was left in sensory deprivation hell before he was spit back out. Ling took careful stock of his surroundings before doing anything stupid. Not one, not two, but _three_ massive chi that overwhelmed his sense of the Dragon's Pulse. One, the shadowy one, right behind him. Another right next to him, in the shape of a lovely woman with a strange tattoo on her chest, just above her cleavage. And the worst one of all was in front of him—a pale man with pale golden hair and eyes, dressed in white robes.

"Tell me, young man. Do you want to live?" The golden man looked down at him, those eyes seeming… devoid of _something_ intrinsically human.

"What kind of stupid question is that?" Ling spat in return, only to be speared in the side.

"Behave yourself, human. Our Father is giving you a choice." The woman pulled her hand away from Ling, fingers far too long to be natural and coated in blood.

"Of course I want to live! I have a duty to my people! I will take Xing's throne for myself, and not one of you monsters is going to keep me from it!" Ling snarled, his hand clutching his side as he tried to stop the bleeding. Shadows pinned him in place to keep him from moving any further, though.

"Hmmm. Maybe then you'll be able to handle my Greed…" the pale man said, turning away from Ling to go look at something else. A book on a table, he realized.

It took a few moments for the shadow-child to speak up. "Father? You can't mean to make a _human_ into one of us, can you?"

"It's only an experiment, Pride. We'll see if he even makes it, first." The man known as 'Father' didn't look at his own son. Instead, he stayed in silence for a few more minutes, doing something Ling couldn't quite make out before returning with a glass vial of shimmering red liquid in it.

"This may hurt, but you'll be better off for it, in the long run." Ling's eyes widened, and he tried to get free of the shadowy hold on his body when he realized that this golden man was going to pour something with its own immense chi into his open wound.

The agony started. He was subsumed in a sea of souls as his body fought to reject whatever had been put inside of his bloodstream. Distantly, he could hear himself screaming. In his mind's eye, he saw a strange, inhuman face laughing at him. "You're still here! Hand over your body, kid."

Ling was so… tired… The tormented souls around him quickly wore away at his grip on his own body. Enough that the mask-like face was easily able to overcome him.

No. He had a duty to his people. He had to _help_ them. He couldn't just die here…

 

* * *

 

His first conscious thought was of how there was a gnawing ache in his stomach. _Hunger_ , he thought dimly, only vaguely aware of what that meant right now. His second was that there was a man he knew he was intrinsically a part of—and was now apart from—standing in front of him. Beside and behind him, there were two beings that felt incredibly similar to himself, but with different base emotions.

"What is your name, my son?" The man in front of him asked.

"Oh? You're my Daddy, huh?" Behind him, the small child snorted, and he looked back to see a strange, unfamiliar expression on the boy's face. _Disgust_ , his mind helpfully provided.

"I am your Father, yes. Now tell me your name and drive." There was a foreboding sense of dread, and he knew that if he waited any longer, he might wind up going back where he'd come from. He couldn't have that.

"My drive? I want _everything_. Money, fame, sex, the _entire goddamned world_. I want everything I can get my hands on and more, more _more_. I am _**Greed**_ , that's what I do."

He'd said the right thing, because the woman next to him and the child behind him might have rolled their eyes, but Daddy patted his head. "Then rise, Greed. Welcome to the world, my son."


End file.
